


Contact

by thatmountainhermit



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Fae, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Fae & Fairies, It was written kinda shippy but kinda not, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 23:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12493032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatmountainhermit/pseuds/thatmountainhermit
Summary: Faery AU.The five times a fae tried to steal Virgil away, and the one time he didn’t





	Contact

**Author's Note:**

  * For [insertfandomjoke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/insertfandomjoke/gifts).



> Haaaaaapy biiiiiirthday toooooooo Meeeeeeeek aka [ pattonscardigan](https://pattonscardigan.tumblr.com)! (this was written for their bday today bc i love them but they are too far away to give a physical gift)

1.

“Come on! I have a secret hide out this way!” A saccharine grin, inviting Virgil to step over, step off the path. To venture into the forest full of stories and secrets and missing children and adults alike. 

“Mummy says I have to always stay on the path.” A frown marred soft features, wearing in lines that had already become commonplace on a youthful brow. “Can we go back to the street? I don’t like leaving without telling her.”

Back over they moved, amber eyes wide with excitement. The longer Virgil looked, the more entranced he felt in the uncanny stare. “Come on, it’s not far! And I promise that it’s really fun!” Fair hands made a grab for his own, but Virgil stepped away, shaking his head, clearing out the cotton balls that seemed to have gathered in his mind.

“I’m going back home. Mummy will worry about me. If you want me to keep playing with you, you’ll just have to come back to the street.” Virgil stated, gathering upon every ounce of courage in his pre-school body. 

The other boy looked slightly disheartened, or rather disappointed, shrugging before smiling once more. “Maybe next time you can ask her!” He chirped. Virgil nodded, and followed the trusty path back to his street. 

He tried to tell his mom about the strange new friend he made, but the harder he thought, the more details that disappeared, until all he could remember were bright, amber eyes.

* * *

2.

“Where are you going?” A rattlingly familiar voice, lilting and sweet. Virgil turned to look, and saw wild brown hair, a mischievous grin. Amber eyes. Bright and glinting with determination.

“School?” He asked, in the most ‘duh’ voice he could muster. He hadn’t seen this guy in years, despite the way his dreams had been haunted with those eyes.

“Sounds boring. Come and hang out with me!” That enticing smile, a hand held out to Virgil. “I have a stash of candy, and I’m willing to share it! I have far too much to eat myself!”

Virgil blinked, stepping back. Because that wasn’t creepy at _all_. “Look, if I’m late to class one more time I’ll get another detention. Maybe another time.”

“You can’t honestly tell me you enjoy going there. That’s just anxiety talking. Worry for the consequences.” The boy pouted, eyes shining with an innocence that Virgil didn’t believe for a second. After all, it was the same innocence he tried to affect when he was in trouble. “Come on. It’s just one time.”

“I’ll pass.” Virgil turned and continued along the path.

Later in class, his mind still stuck on the boy in the forest instead of whatever the teacher was talking about, it would occur to Virgil that he didn’t once step past the iron markings of the path. 

Vaguely, he remembered the iron ring on a piece of twine that his old neighbor, Ms Mayfair gave him when he was five. A strange, studying look had been on her weary face before she finally tucked it into his small hand. “Be careful, Virgil. Our forest is unkind.”

He didn’t believe in the rumors about the fae. He _didn’t_.

* * *

3.

His need to be away from them won out. Away from school he ran, ran, ran to the path home, the forest, the iron guards, as if the other boys would be deterred by them. Still their laughter rang in his ears, cruel and mocking as he stumbled the familiar steps.

“Children can be so savage” A sigh. Leaves barely crunched under light footsteps, and amber eyes watched as Virgil slowed, turning to look at the boy.

“You say that as though you aren’t one.” His words were slow, testing the waters. The boy certainly looked his age, but his eyes looked older than Ms Mayfair’s. That was the strangeness that hung around him, Virgil realised. The air of being older than he appeared. The air of a fae. He continued walking.

The boy smiled wryly, eyes twinkling with amusement. “I think we both know what I am, if that ring is anything to go by.” Virgil glanced down at the band around his middle finger, then back at the boy. “No tricks today. Merely an invitation. You’ll have a place of your own if you come with me. Cared for. Loved. No having to worry about school or nasty other children. A paradise of your own.”

“No.”

The look on the fae’s face was comical. Amber eyes wide, jaw slack for a few moments. “I-what?”

“No. I don’t want to go. Mom and dad will be worried sick.” He didn’t want his parents to become old Ms Mayfair. And Logan. His internet friend. Oh god, Logan. He wasn’t from the area. He’d think the worst had happened, the worst that could logically happen, in the real world where ‘faeries don’t exist, Virgil.’

The fae looked genuinely perplexed, a frown distorting his too-perfect features. “But don’t you want to get away from those nasty boys?”

Virgil shook his head. “I’m not going with you.”

“What’s your name?”

A cynical smile as the path moved out of the forest, onto the street. “Maybe another time.” 

“Until we next meet, then.” A promise. 

Virgil didn’t reply. 

* * *

4.

He was seventeen when he received another iron ring, a thin iron chain, and a cuff. All from Ms Mayfair, who gave him that knowing, weary look as she gave him the wrapped gifts. “You be careful in exploring, boy.”

Her warning echoed in his head as he stepped off the path for the first time in his life, wearing all the gifts on his fingers, under his hoodie.

Amber eyes were wide as the fae realised Virgil was off the path. Shoulders slumped when they noticed the iron on both hands. “So close, and yet you are still so far, Virge.” He sighed.

“I’ve come to see that secret hideout you mentioned.” Virgil replied dryly.

A surprised bark of laughter escaped soft lips. “Hideout rules say no iron, Virge.” A knowing smile. “I can, however, share some treats from home.” The fae turned and nodded for Virgil to follow. 

“I’d rather not.” He knew the rules. No real names, no accepting food, no saying thanks. “I wouldn’t mind if you shared your name.”

Narrowed eyes, studying Virgil. “I suppose that’s fair, considering where I learned yours. Pat.” He said eventually. 

Virgil snorted, amused by “Pat”’s reasoning. “Since when are the fae concerned with fairness?” He tilted his head, eyes raking over Pat as if knowing his name, looking him over again, would give some detail about his true name.

“Since their favorite human was concerned.” Simple, yet loaded with a meaning that left Virgil nearly breathless. He could only stare at Pat’s back as they continued, deeper into the forest.

The clearing where Pat finally stopped wasn’t ringed with mushrooms. A carpet of yellows and reds littered the floor, the trees letting in the midday sun. This was the forest of the fae, this was the domain of amber eyes. Virgil could feel the magic try to curl into his chest as he breathed, protected only by iron jewelry. 

They sat. They talked. Eventually, Virgil let himself rest against the old tree, legs sprawled in front of him, while Pat wove stories of humans and fae and times long gone. Virgil told him about Lo, about the internet, about how school still sucked and how he couldn’t wait to get out of this damn town and finally go to college with his best (and seemingly only) friend.

At that admission, Pat slumped, just a little. “We’re not friends?” He sounded heartbroken, and Virgil nearly felt sorry for him.

“Every time I see you, you’re trying to whisk me off to fairyland. Not exactly a friendship, is it?” He pointed out, rings loosely held in his hand. He had taken them off before the air cooled, making it too hard to take them off. Virgil was confident that his chain and cuff would protect him. “And that's the only time I really see you.”

“I can't exactly go out into the world. Everything you humans use is made of iron.” Pat huffed, lying down next to Virgil. “And you were too scared to step off the path.”

“Maybe I'll come visit more, now.” He didn’t miss the way Pat perked up at that, a glimmer of excitement brightening his eyes. Virgil let out a soft chuckle, letting the rings rest on his chest and staring up at the leafy ceiling.

He did miss the glint in amber eyes when his hands moved away from the rings, seemingly unprotected. He missed the way Pat shifted ever so slightly closer, the was fingers inched toward his hand, just needing a brush of skin.

Then Pat jumped as if burned, catching Virgil’s attention once more. “Woah, you okay?”

“Just rolled on a branch.” Pat sat up and rubbed at his shoulder. He looked at Virgil, expression shifting. “So what’s college like, other than a more adult version of school?”

Virgil said nothing about the looks that Pat gave him for the rest of their time together. 

* * *

5.

The last year of school seemed to pass quicker than ever before, between classes and exams and studying in the forest, Pat by his side but largely uncomprehending of what was contained in books and marked paper.

And then high school was over. And the summer had melted away in a haze of fruits and afternoons with Pat in clearing and evenings talking to Logan about college together.

“Last chance to tell me before I’m gone.” Virgil stood on the edge of the path, toes pressed against iron. “Why did you always try to steal me away?” It was a topic they had danced around for the year, between secrets and admissions and stories. 

He wasn’t wearing his protections today. He wouldn’t need them, after today. His college was a state away, far from the forest, from fae, from Pat. 

“You saw me, when you were just a child. You were kind.” Pat gave him that bright smile, the one that always hid something. Virgil’s heart fluttered, but there was a weight that seemed to tug at Pat’s shoulders, caught in those golden depths, despite how he tried to hide it. “And then you were a challenge. But now? You’re a friend.”

“And friends don’t take each other to random places for eternity.” Virgil smiled. “You’ll be okay. Just find some other human to annoy.”

“But I don’t want another human.” Golden eyes softened, the distance between them shrunk a little more. Virgil knew what was coming. Expected it. One last chance to take him away. “I want you.” Reaching, reaching, just like he did all those years ago.

“For someone ancient and terrifying, you really don’t learn, do you Pat?” Virgil stepped back, out of his reach. “I have to go.” 

“Patton.” Virgil turned, eyes wide at the admission. He knew what had just been given to him. “Use it wisely.”

“Goodbye, Patton.” He murmured, and watched as a shiver ran down Patton’s spine. Then he turned, and walked back to the street.

* * *

+1

The forest looked completely different, somehow. And yet it felt exactly the same, even a decade since Virgil last stepped foot into it. A decade hopping states, burying himself in city life, staying far away from reminders of his hometown. Of his forest. Of his fae.

The air still felt heavy as he breathed it in. The magic still tried to curl into his lungs as he passed over the iron marking of the path. The clearing seemed to be the way he had last seen it, in his memory at eighteen. But one thing was missing. Had been missing since he stepped off the path.

“Patton?” Virgil called softly. No response, no flicker of amber between the trees. “Pat, come on, you can’t seriously have up and disappeared! This is your place!”

“Technically, it belongs to the court.” Virgil jumped, spinning around to meet glittering amber eyes. “But I’m flattered that you associate the forest so much with me, Virge.”

Virgil scrambled to get his ring off, closing the distance between them with a few steps and hugging Patton tight. “Don’t fucking scare me like that, you asshole.” He huffed out. “I thought you were gone, it’s been so long.”

“I can’t exactly ignore my name.” Patton murmured, fingers curling into Virgil’s hair, an arm wrapping around his waist. “Especially when it’s you who’s calling it.”

“Gay.” Virgil huffed a wry laugh, pressing his nose into the crook of Patton’s neck. And they stayed there, pressed together, clinging to each other, far longer than Virgil would admit. Finally, he spoke softly, unsure if Patton would even hear it. “Virgil.”

“A lovely name.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me at [ princeyandanxiety](https://princeyandanxiety.tumblr.com)!


End file.
